Shigeru Ban responds to the emergency in Nepal

Pritzker Prize Laureate Shigeru Ban has announced plans to contribute to emergency relief efforts in Nepal after the April 25 earthquake reduced cities to rubble, killed more than 7,000, and left thousands homeless. In the short term, Ban’s firm and his relief organization Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) will distribute simple tents—supplemented with plastic sheets donated by contractors to serve as wall partitions—and assemble them onsite as temporary shelter and medical aid stations.
— archrecord.construction.com

According to the report, VAN aims to partner with local universities, students and architects in the coming months to work towards create stable housing once conditions have stabilized. This is not the first time that Shigeru Ban, who won the 2014 Pritzker prize, has deployed his architectural expertise to respond to emergency situations. After Christchurch, New Zealand was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2012, Ban designed a soaring cathedral out of paper tubes to temporarily shelter congregates. His firm is well-known for designing emergency housing following a massive tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.